Residents of Getaru in Nyamira county have called on the national government to consider stationing security personnel in the region to combat rising incidents of theft that has seen a community project vandalised in a number of occasions.
According to them, the Getaru Dam, a project initiated by members of the community to promote fish rearing in the region has been vandalised on more than five occasions, with the robbers harvesting fish worth thousands of shillings.
Speaking during an emergency meeting to discuss the state of security after the Sunday night vandalism, the Project’s chair Ombwori Kennedy urged the national government to provide security in the region by deploying police officers for persistent patrols.
“We have lost a lot of output through vandalism of the project. For instance, they (robbers) harvested fish yesterday (Sunday) and that is a big loss for us. We urge the government to deploy security officers for surveillance and general security in the region,” he said.
According to him, the multi-million fish project had not realised its intended objectives of reducing unemployment among youths in the region by opening up other businesses through profits realised from fish business.
“Five years down the wire, we haven’t realised our main objective of making this area an opportunity for youths. We had in mind plans to open other businesses and provide employment for our youths but persistent vandalisms have denied us the opportunities,” he added.
They said local security arrangements had failed to work with robbers said to be operating with deadly arsenals that needed police intervention.
“For instance, they (robbers) ordered the two night guards on duty to lie down and even inflicted head injuries on them. They are heavily armed and it requires police intervention to combat the escalating insecurity .